Category: Anime / Manga

Sometimes, mindlessly browsing on the Internet can take you places. In my case, it lead me to Real by Takehiko Inoue.

I cannot find words to describe it. All I can say is that I’m hooked. It’s actually one of those manga’s that I just have to own.

Real (Japanese: リアル Hepburn: Riaru?, stylized as REAL) is a manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue that deals with wheelchair basketball. It has been serialized in Weekly Young Jump since 1999, with the chapters collected into 14 tankōbon volumes to date by Shueisha. By 2013, the first 12 volumes had sold over 14 million copies in Japan alone.[1]

Although not as popular as Inoue’s Slam Dunk, Real is a more serious take on basketball with more character development in a realistic setting. It is also aimed at a more mature audiences, being a seinen manga series serialized in Weekly Young Jump.

It’s also one manga that will find it’s place into my bookshelves. It’s been 4 years now since I’ve bought any manga’s. I convinced myself that it was just a phase that will pass away if I don’t fuel it. After all, there are so many websites out there where you can read them for free. But, it’s not the same.

This is something that I cannot just let it slip away. I know Real by Takehiko Inoue it’s an ongoing series, 13 volumes being published till today. I know I will have to hurry to buy the volumes before they go out of print (on MangaShop.ro) but I’m willing to give up on other things just to have it.

At first, I wanted to go for Slam Dunk, also by Takehiko Inoue. But, there are some volumes that I can’t buy and I don’t like having incomplete series. I still hope to find volume 9 of Dr. Slump!

I’m 100% that I will not regret the effort and I will enjoy having a new addition to my small but precious collection. After all, Real by Takehiko Inoue is just brilliant and in a way fits my current tastes in manga, being a more mature manga.

I woke up this morning with just one thought: I need to clean. That’s what I did till now, I cleaned our two bedrooms and I managed to throw away so many useless things. I got rid of old bags, shoes, empty boxes and all the small things that we just didn’t need but were taking up space.

It’s amazing how many things just one person can collect over the years. And there was so much dust. It was everywhere, including on me. After I felt satisfied with the result (and when I was too tired to continue) I took a long bath. Somehow all the cleaning reminded me of a nice scene from a certain movie:

Even if I only had one day off from work where I could relax, I don’t regret anything. I really needed to just clean and declutter our personal space. It was getting to the point where we didn’t have room for us to stay.

Plus I still have the afternoon free so I can just sit back and watch some TV. Overall, today was a good and productive day.

I’ve made it to Nijikon this year! Usually I forget about it or don’t have any money to go. But this year, somehow I’ve made it.

I’m sorry to say this, but for me the anime conventions in Romania aren’t getting any better. Now, I’m not saying everything was that bad, heck no. I saw some awesome Cosplay, some decent merchandise, the screening room was bigger than usual but that’s about it.

The only reason I don’t regret going this year is the Totoro plushie Johnny was so kind to get me.

The fee to get in was pretty high IMO. I’m going to quote Johnny on this one: “That was the most expensive fee we paid to go to the toilet, ever!”. I understand the building was rented for the weekend and they had to get the rent money somehow (and a little profit on the side) but if we are going to pay at least we should be able to see/find something worthy.

Around 80% of the merchandise was handmade, some were good others not so good (mostly not so good); only 2 shops with plushies or original anime/manga merchandise but not a lot of diversity. You could find One Piece, Sailor Moon, Fairy Tail and a few other anime related objects but that was it.

Everything there very expensive! Seriously, that Totoro plushie is very small but it was 50Ron (around 11€ or $15). 20 minutes, that’s how long we stayed at the convention.

This is it. I think I’m done with conventions. I don’t feel like paying just to be present somewhere.

But I got a Totoro so it wasn’t that bad. In fact, after leaving the convention the day became better and better. We went to the Botanical Garden. Apparently we paid for a walk in the park since every exposition there was closed. At least it was cheaper than at Nijikon. I managed to take a few photos with my phone and see a few brides.

After that lunch and a game of pool, which Johnny won. We ended the day with Pacific Rim, which wasn’t what I expected it to be. Overall it was a good day. It’s been a while since we actually went out and did many things and just had fun.

I got feelings watching this movie. It’s amazing how many memories a simple Anime can bring back.

I missed Dragon Ball, that’s a fact. I’m very happy they released a new movie this year but my God it was so tame compared with the original series. No kinky jokes, no Bulma nudity, Vegeta was transformed into a wuss, Goku into an “idiot who only thinks about fighting” and the rest of the characters were there just as a background.

Then again its hard to make a good Dragon Ball movie since the fights take most of he screen time. As Johnny said, in this movie the first part is about Bills (The God of Destruction) eating different things while thinking about Super Saiyan God and the second part has the fight between Goku and Bills.

Still, it wasn’t bad.

It a was a good trip down the memory lane. The graphics were cool, but I seriously had a problem with Goku’s pink hair. Why pink? Why?

Oh well, at least the gave Vegeta and Bulma more importance. Yet, it didn’t feel like Vegeta and Bulma. I mean if Vegeta wanted to slap Goku, he would slap him. He wouldn’t command Bulma to slap him, no matter how scary she may be to Goku.

I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I love so much the original DB and DBZ, that anything after that kinda irritates me. Its fun to watch the new movies and all, then the inner geek in me comes out and starts complaining.